UN Drops The Ball On Darfur

When I went to GodBlogCon05 back in October (here, here, here, here, here), each attendee was given a bag of gifts, and one of those gifts was a book that I ignored until recently. I should have read it sooner, because I love it. It's called God's Blogs: Life From God's Perspective, by Lanny Donoho.

Donoho writes as though God Himself were blogging (except it's in book form, not on the internet), and it has a very personal feel to it. One "post" that I especially liked was on anger. In it, "God" pointed out that He gave us anger so that we could be angry about the things that angered Him.

This article in Friday's The Daily Star, a Lebanese news source, really angered me. And I have no doubt it's a righteous anger.

The EU introduced a draft resolution in the UN General Assembly "expressing concern at Sudan's human rights record." That's not the part that upset me. In fact, I'm impressed that the Europeans are still capable of denouncing evil acts.

The problem came when the 53-member African Union presented a no-action motion, which was passed (by a vote of 85 in favor, 79 against and 12 abstentions), that shut down debate and any vote on the EU's resolution.

The EU draft expressed concern at "the protracted humanitarian crisis in Darfur and the recent upsurge in violence perpetrated by all parties to the conflict."

It also slammed "the continuing climate of impunity in the Darfur region, particularly in the area of violence against women and girls" and the "forced relocation of displaced people, particularly in the peri-urban settlements around Khartoum."

Introducing the draft on behalf of the EU, Britain's UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry said: "There can hardly be a situation of human rights in more urgent need of the world's attention than the situation in Sudan."

"Despite the efforts of the African Union, civilians are still being killed, rape is still widespread and the situation of hundreds of thousands of displaced people remains dire," he added.

The United Nations was started, in large part, to prevent genocide, but instead it has become the chief enabler of human rights abuses and genocide. I've long ago given up hope that it will step up and fulfill its purpose. Wednesday's vote has only confirmed my lack of hope.

We need to tear down the UN building brick by brick, stone by stone, and send the protectors of evil packing. They don't deserve to set foot on free soil.

Then maybe (very tiny maybe) we can start over with only those nations that have proven their devotion to liberty.